WP Ed. Board: Trump's presidency enters a new imperial phase -- and Mitch McConnell just rolls over
Source: Washington Post
Trump’s presidency enters a new imperial phase — and Mitch McConnell just rolls over
By Editorial Board February 14 at 7:17 PM
ADMITTEDLY, IT is an overworked trope. “Imagine how Republicans would have responded if Barack Obama had tried this!” Democrats exclaim at each fresh outrage. In the case of President Trump’s plan to declare an emergency to build a border wall, it is certainly apt; the Freedom Caucus (including Mick Mulvaney, now Mr. Trump’s acting chief of staff) would have been apoplectic. But in considering this phony emergency conjured cynically for electoral advantage, it is more apt to imagine the future than the past.
Imagine indeed if, two years from now, a President Booker, Harris, Warren or Bennet, seizing on the Parkland massacre’s anniversary, invoked emergency powers to halt the killing of innocents — by banning the sale of semiautomatic weapons, imposing uniform background checks for gun purchases or levying a stiff federal surtax on the sale of gun parts and ammunition.
If an emergency can be manufactured over border security when illegal border crossings are near a 20-year low, as measured by Border Patrol arrests, then it’s a snap to make the case for an emergency over gun deaths, which are near a 20-year high.
It seems logical that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), having approved Mr. Trump’s emergency, would acquiesce in future such emergency declarations. By becoming a rubber stamp for Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnell has set a precedent: that he is prepared to accept any president who would treat the will of Congress, and the Constitution, with cavalier contempt.
For make no mistake, that is precisely what Mr. Trump will have done if he goes ahead with his plan. His fulminations about a border wall having failed to convince the legislative branch, which forged a deal that yielded less than a quarter of the funds the president demanded, he has decided by his planned emergency declaration simply to render the legislative branch irrelevant. That’s a tried-and-true technique for autocrats the world over; it’s not what the framers had in mind when they granted Congress the power of the purse.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-presidency-enters-a-new-imperial-phase--and-mitch-mcconnell-just-rolls-over/2019/02/14/4ef389f2-3099-11e9-86ab-5d02109aeb01_story.html
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If not for McConnell - who obstructed him at every turn. 
